Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of audio input, and more particularly to the field of using multiple microphones for synchronized voice interaction with electronic devices.
Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of audio input, it is a common practice to utilize multiple microphones for noise cancellation or echo reduction during audio recording. By positioning multiple microphones, audio may be “heard” from various positions and orientations to allow software or hardware processing to account for variations such as echoes, reverberation, or other acoustic anomalies, enhancing the quality of recorded audio data. As speech-capable technologies have developed such as virtual assistant software programs like Apple SIRI™, these noise cancellation functions have been important in improving the usefulness of such interaction technologies by improving the recognition of spoken audio and removing unwanted audio to reduce “false positives”.
No current technology exists to utilize multiple microphones for synchronized audio interaction with such technologies, however. Synchronized audio would enable the use of multiple microphones to allow a user to move about a space while interacting naturally with a virtual assistant, for example. Multiple microphones may also be used to enable multiple participants to interact with a single speech-interaction technology simultaneously, something that is not possible in current implementations. Additionally, the use of multiple microphones as well as multiple speakers or other output devices, may enhance an overall user experience during interaction by enabling a user to freely “talk to a whole room”, where they may speak naturally from any position or orientation, and hear responses and feedback regardless of their location within a space. Current implementations do not allow for such use, and generally require a user to speak toward a listening device such as a smartphone or a stationary microphone in order to ensure optimum performance, and this operation inhibits natural interaction by breaking the user out of their normal activity whenever they wish to speak to the device.
What is needed, is a system and method to operate multiple microphones for synchronized audio interaction, and to utilize synchronized audio feedback for enhanced interaction with speech-interaction technologies.